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. 2018 Sep 28;13(9):e0204012.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204012. eCollection 2018.

Longitudinal measurement invariance of memory performance and executive functioning in healthy aging

Pedro Silva Moreira  1   2   3 , Nadine Santos  1   2   3 , Teresa Castanho  1   2   3 , Liliana Amorim  1   2   3 , Carlos Portugal-Nunes  1   2   3 , Nuno Sousa  1   2   3 , Patrício Costa  1   2   3
Affiliations

Longitudinal measurement invariance of memory performance and executive functioning in healthy aging

Pedro Silva Moreira et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

In this work, we examined the longitudinal measurement invariance of a battery composed of distinct cognitive parameters. A sample of 86 individuals (53.5% females; mean age = 65.73), representative of the Portuguese older population, with respect to sex, age and level of education was assessed twice over an average of two years. By means of a confirmatory factor analysis approach, we tested whether a two-factor solution [corresponding to measures of memory performance (MEM) and executive functioning (EXEC)] was reliable over time. Nested models of longitudinal invariance demonstrated the existence of partial strong invariance over time. In other words, this indicates that there is an equivalence of the factorial structure and factor loadings for all items; this was also observed for the item intercepts for all the items, except for one of the items from the EXEC dimension. Stability coefficients revealed high associations between the dimensions over time and that, whereas there was a significant decline of the MEM across time, this was not observed for the EXEC dimension. These findings reveal that changes in MEM and EXEC scores can be attributed to true changes on these constructs, enabling the use of this battery as a reliable method to study cognitive aging.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Representation of the model for assessing longitudinal measurement invariance.
Fig 2
Fig 2
Scatter plots representing the association between timepoints for (A) MEM and (B) EXEC.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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